He’s inside me. I swallowed his name.Vedikus’s presence had filled every hole and hidden place she had left, Following him to Prayer hadn’t been about survival, it had been about curing her illness, about extending her life. And for what? To expunge the mist from her body so she wouldn’t lose herself to mindlessness?
To spend more time with the beast?
A small part of her hoped that by curing it, she’d be free of him. That he was part of the curse and just needed to be banished. Another, stronger part of her focused on that tendril of hope despite the lie beneath.
He warned me from the beginning. There’s no escape.
No cure for exorcising him.
“I would have—” The words that came out were heavy. “I would have looked for you.”
“Why?”
“To know if you were dead.”
“And would you have finished me off if I were not?”
“No,” she answered. His lips twitched, bringing her attention to his mouth.
Vedikus drew her closer until she lost sight of it and his breath drifted through her own parted lips. An almost kiss. “Why?”
“Because I cared! I care.”
His mouth twisted up into a smile. The first wisp of steam drifted up over his face to caress his blunt features. She licked her lower lip, wishing she could taste the salt of his sweat against them.
“I wanted to be with you,” she said gently.
Vedikus pulled her away, and with strength she thought he no longer possessed, moved her over him until she straddled his hips, never releasing her hair. There was a look of triumph on his face, and it made her confession all that much harder. Aldora lifted off him only to be jostled back into position. A blush stung her cheeks as his shaft pressed and moved against her.
His other hand lingered on her lower back, slipping under her tunic to settle over her skin. She was afraid to place her own on his body, unable to see the extent of his wounds under the bandages, and settled to touch only where he was exposed.
“I am a warrior. Pain is nothing,” he said as if he read her mind. “Mount me.” Vedikus pushed his hips up.
“No.” Aldora tried to look over her shoulder at the shadowy entrance, but he kept her anchored his way.
“You’ve already admitted you have nothing else to live for, female. Don’t stop yourself now.”
“I never admitted such a thing,” she snapped. “You think too highly of yourself. I would never—” His hand wrenched her hair back and a gasp escaped her lips. His mouth crashed onto hers, claiming the shallow space between.
She jerked under the pressure and parted her lips further, succumbing to his unspoken demand. Like everything about him, the kiss was rough and greedy, taking every intimate space she had left and claimed it for his own. His overly large hands roamed her body, warming her through her ruined, wet clothes. She melted into him, seeking his heat, and a strange sense of comfort overcame her.
She found it hard to breathe, hard to find her bearings with his focus solely on her. It happened every time Vedikus touched her with intention, with crude, unsolicited want that he laid bare before her. She was forced to acknowledge it, being captured at his side whether it was by rope, by his grip, or his will, she was always within the reach of his desire.
I can remember his smell.Vedikus cupped the back of her head and reared over her, bending her back and feasting on her mouth.I can’t taste him.Aldora imagined it was brimstone and oil, filled with the hottest spices from south of the capital.The only thing that belongs to his heat.
She kissed him back at last and took his phallic tongue with her teeth, trapping it in the way she felt trapped, drawing a low hum from his throat. It shot through her and built the hollow ache between her legs. The stretch and burn from his abrupt taking hours prior teased her core, waking it back up despite the horror, drenching her undergarments with her essence.
His cock stabbing its way through her pants was her only relief. Her sex constricted, dying for his prick to penetrate her deep and hard. She undulated what she could of her hips, rubbing her swollen, needy self all over him.
His groping hands moved up her chest, skimming over her nipples before he gripped the collar of her tunic. She released his mouth when his violent fingers shredded her shirt down the middle, not even leaving her thin underwear to cover her chest.
Vedikus cupped her breasts and squeezed, rubbing the pads of his thumbs across her beaded nipples in torturous circles. Aldora rocked her hips helplessly.
“Females of my kind do not have full, rounded tits,” he said, his dark gazed focused upon them. “There’s nothing soft about them like these.”
“There’s nothing soft about you,” she whimpered when he pinched her.
“You’ll be my soft.”
